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6 Reasons To Buy An Xbox 360 Instead Of A PlayStation 3

Looking for a video game console for that special someone this Holiday season? You might want to consider the Xbox 360 over the PS3—here’s why.

The Xbox 360 sold like hotcakes during Black Friday week. Despite the fact that Microsoft’s console is nearing its eighth birthday, the system still has a lot to offer, even with the next generation of gaming systems on the not-too distant horizon.

So why buy the Xbox 360 over Sony’s PS3? Here are six reasons.

1. Xbox Live is more secure than PSN

It’s true that the PlayStation Network is free and that you’ll need to pay to access online features with Xbox Live. But the old adage remains true: you pay for what you get. Xbox Live remains a more secure platform than the PSN, subject to far fewer hacks and other problems.

And while the paid PlayStation Plus service is certainly a great value, the fact remains that if you have security concerns the Xbox 360 is the better of the two. No network is going to be perfectly secure, of course, but Xbox Live has never seen a month-long hack in which tens of millions of users were affected.

2. The Xbox 360 controller is better, especially for shooters

It may not come with a rechargeable battery pack or cable, but the Xbox 360 controller does fit much more comfortably to the shape of the human hand. The thumbsticks also respond with more accuracy than those on Sony’s DualShock controller, making the Xbox 360 a far better fit for anything that requires pinpoint precision, such as first-person shooters.

There’s nothing wrong with the PS3 controller, of course, but I find the layout and grip on the Xbox 360 controller is a tiny bit more intuitive, though it’s quite possible that children and people with smaller hands might prefer the slightly more compact offering from Sony.

3. Better exclusives if you like shooters

I’m not a huge fan of shooters, whether third or first-person. This makes me lean more toward the Sony exclusives like Demon’s Souls and LittleBigPlanet. But if you’re a fan of shooters, Xbox 360 is the only place to go for the Halo franchise, or the Gears of War games. Likewise, even cross-platform shooters will have a more robust online community on Xbox Live than PS3.

Meanwhile, even though the Killzone games on PS3 are decent shooters, there’s just not anything equivalent to the big dogs on Xbox 360 for gamers with a penchant for shooting at one another.

4. Cross-platform games have more problems on PS3

If anything, this seems to be more of an issue now than in the past. Games like Skyrim on the PS3 have game-breaking bugs. But many other games in recent months have had similar, though less enduring, problems. Users of many third party games have reported lag, freezing, game crashes and other problems.

This is likely due to the fact that the PS3 is more difficult to develop games on, especially for cross-platform third party titles. While developers who devote all their time to Sony exclusives can produce remarkable results, cross-platform releases often struggle on the PlayStation 3.

5. In the US, your friends are more likely to have an Xbox 360

To put it simply, the PS3 dominates globally but the Xbox 360 is the machine of choice here in the US. This means you’re more likely to have friends playing online Xbox 360 games than you are to have friends playing online PS3 games (though, obviously, this depends on your friends.)

While Xbox has never made a huge splash overseas, it manages to appeal to American gamers, and certainly makes the choice here, for online gamers especially, a no-brainer.

6. Integration with Windows and Windows 8

Finally, if you want to network your console to your Windows-based PC or your Windows Phone, the Xbox 360 is the way to go. While you can link the PS Vita to your PS3, it’s trickier to network Sony’s console with your home PC. To be fair, Microsoft could do a much better job making this process easier themselves, but with their SmartGlass technology and Windows 8, linking all your Windows products together will be easier than ever.

~

All that being said, I think the “console wars” are silly. This piece is a companion piece to my earlier post “6 Reasons To Buy A PlayStation 3 Instead of an Xbox 360.” It’s not that I’ve changed my mind. Truth be told, there’s many reasons to buy either one of these consoles. They both have many wonderful qualities and many shortcomings.

The number one reason to go with either the PS3 or Xbox 360 is the exclusive titles, and that really boils down to a matter of taste. There are many great exclusives on both systems, but gamers will never agree on which are the best.

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Bastion is incredible, even more so on the iPad…am sure it is good on an iPhone, but just more real estate on the tablet does wonders with gestures and display. And with headphones it just rocks…so want that soundtrack.

Personally, my optimum setup would be a gaming PC for graphics and multiplats with either a PS3 or a WiiU for exclusives. Get a controller and connect the PC to your tv, and you won’t even miss the Xbox. Unless all your friends only have an xbox, in which case get better friends.

That’s so impractical. I have had 3 or 4 HTPCs and they are such a pain. Remember that consoles are for media streaming as well. Having to use a mouse and keyboard and use a web browser is a pain compared to “press internet button… click on netflix button”

Also a HTPC kills the true hardcore gaming experience – which is mouse and keyboards for RPGs and FPSs.

Is this link-bait? Did you get bored and decide to wade into the console wars to see what would happen?

I really don’t have a dog in this fight, but I should point out that your “Six Reasons To Buy An Xbox 360 Instead Of A PlayStation 3″ are pretty ambivalent as to which console is a better buy. I read what you wrote, and to me it sounded like:

1. PSN is free, while Xbox Live makes you pay a monthly fee forever for (a more secure version of) the same service.

2. The Xbox Controller isn’t rechargeable (How does that even work? I must have misunderstood.)

3. Xbox has a bunch of shooters, while PS3 has everything I actually want to play

4. PS3 cross-platform games are buggy (this is an actual, clear reason to prefer the Xbox)

5. Your friends have Xboxes (again, this is a good reason, but it only applies to people who play video games with their friends, not to friendless anti-social losers like me)

6. The Xbox can work as a media centre interface to your PC. (This is another legitimate reason, but is inevitably going to meet the retort that the PS3 can also access media servers… sort of… and that it has a built-in Blu-ray player.)

The ambivalence of your six points above almost makes it sound like you’re about to follow up with a “Six Reasons to Buy a PS3 Instead of an Xbox”. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

“The ambivalence of your six points above almost makes it sound like you’re about to follow up with a “Six Reasons to Buy a PS3 Instead of an Xbox”. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.”

Or you could skip waiting and actually read the article! You know, to the end. Specifically the end. Seriously, for actually taking the time to read the list then and typing out your responses one by one I find it amazing you didn’t go that little bit farther and read the last two paragraphs.

Seems to me that if anyone got bored and decided to wade into the console wars it was you…

I own all systems and they all have their benefits but the PS3 is hands down, without a doubt, a better media server than the X-Box. I recommend Java PS3 media server. It’s free to use. (http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/) Besides supporting 7.1 audio (versus the X-Box 2 channel support) the PS3 up-converts all incoming standard definition video to 720p or 1080p. We’re not even going to go into the post processing and filtering the ps3 does…